


softening the fall of snow

by Harmonica_Smile (Rescue_Remedy)



Series: Inspired by [4]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Background Cora, Background Hiriluk, Canon Exploration, Canon Related, Canon Universe, Character Study, Chopper's inability to visually distinguish difference, Complete, Gen, Ninja Chopper, One Shot, When is a Jolly Roger not a Jolly Roger?, genuary 2021, two doctors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26461240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rescue_Remedy/pseuds/Harmonica_Smile
Summary: An ask from tumblr.Chopper and Law talking about courage or Jolly Rogers.Jolly Rogers decorate flags and jars of poison.
Relationships: Doctor Hiriluk & Tony Tony Chopper, Tony Tony Chopper & Trafalgar D. Water Law
Series: Inspired by [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931497
Comments: 20
Kudos: 60
Collections: Genuary 2021





	softening the fall of snow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RobotintheRoom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobotintheRoom/gifts).



* * *

**Softening the Fall of Snow**

* * *

Law rested on the tatami, the straw smooth and darkened from exposure and wear; his back against the greyed wooden struts and beams of the wall. It'd get cold in here if the weather turned. Shouji didn't keep out anything much, and the paper was ripped and torn.

He envied Chopper his ninja outfit, but he wasn't exactly stealthy when the door hitched and clanked over the ruts as he opened and closed it behind him. He took off his footwear in the greeting area—the genkan—and clambered into the raised room and over to where Law sat.

The town's buildings were old, and times were dangerous, but the allies removed their zori and geta when they entered the broken-down residences. Law's boots were safely back on the Polar Tang. It didn't take much to slip on and off the equivalent of a flipflop.

Weren't tanuki shapeshifters, and didn't the Straw Hat doctor's fruit also allow him to transform? His cap fit over his antlers and under his chin like a cowl, but his mouth wasn't covered. Clothes didn't necessarily secure the shinobi.

Law had been poring over a scroll Robin had whisked away from Orochi. Script ran one vertical line after the other, from right to left. Archaic—it was difficult to read—but illustrations indicated a medicinal text.

It didn't matter if Chopper's hooves snagged the floor's surface, it wasn't going to be repaired in a hurry. Considering how much the wind and leaves and dirt crept in, the place was clean.

He settled by Law's side, checked where Kikoku lay (to Law's left), and pulled his own short sword—his ninja-to—from his back and rested it very deliberately on the tatami to his right. Hone-kichi, Zoro-juro, Law-dono, Kin'emon, Choppa'emon, mighty swordsmen one and all.

He leant forward, legs wide, and dumped his own papers on the surface. A number of them. Law looked across.

"Law?"

"Hmm?"

"Nin Nin."

Law laughed. "You got the best costume."

Chopper nodded, his face scrunching up in annoyance. It was true. But he wasn't here to be praised. His body wiggled in what Law could only call delight, but the little guy ignored it and pointed at what appeared to be a sketch of Kyros' room in Dressrosa—everyone asleep, even Robin, even Zoro. All except Usopp, Law guessed, absent from the scene.

"Usopp kept guard all night," Chopper said.

Law's eyebrows rose.

"He's so brave." The Straw hat doctor pushed the picture Law's way and clipped a hoof on Bellamy's likeness, the grunt sprawled all over the floor, and then clipped the sleeping Law—arms akimbo, mouth wide open, Kikoku his pillow.

"Your crew was in Zou, with us. We met up there." Chopper got on well with Bepo. He tipped his head the Heart captain's way, then back at the picture.

Law investigated the image more closely. "That's right."

"But this Jolly Roger…" Chopper pointed at Doflamingo's mark on Bellamy's chest, then lifted Law's haori to point at the Hearts' insignia on the folds of his kimono, "they're the same."

Law didn't react to Chopper's touch but shuddered at Bellamy, at Bellamy's tattoo, at being compared to Bellamy and at his Jolly Roger being mistaken for Doflamingo's.

Chopper smoothed out more papers—bounty posters—before Law could correct him. The tanuki pulled out an older flier for Robin and another that was some poor impersonation of her. Then he pulled out one of the sniper wearing a mask and the one from after Dressrosa. Law had seen a copy in the gallery—not galley—on Bartolomeo's joke of a ship.

"Where'd you get these?" The older ones would be worth a beri or two.

"Thousand Sunny's library." Chopper pushed the first two posters across the tatami. "Robin's so beautiful in these, isn't she?" He sat back and ran a hoof under his nose. "They're really good shots."

Law double-checked the images then glanced at Chopper. How did minks and zoans get their eyes to sparkle like that? The cute ones anyway.

"Ah…"

"And this guy," Chopper speared Sogeking's poster, "He helped us out in Enies Lobby, but I don't know what happened to him. He was Usopp's friend."

Now he seemed sad. Dammit. Law picked up the Sogeking poster and swallowed. When was a good time to tell kids that Santa didn't exist?

"That's God-ya."

He then pointed at the 200 million beri man.

"And that's also God-ya."

Chopper's mouth fell open. Law replaced Usopp's posters on the tatami and ran a finger along the shorter fringe the Devil Child wore back then.

"That's Robin." He turned his head to the second flier. "But this one's an imposter."

"Really?" Chopper gaped at Law, then back at the photos. Some people said you couldn't trust pirates, but Luffy liked the Surgeon of Death. He wasn't startled, but certainly puzzled. He gathered all the bounties and tried to spot the differences or similarities by himself.

Law held the diagram from Dressrosa. Usopp _was_ good. He pushed a finger into Bellamy's tattoo. How had they not woken?

"This is _not_ the Heart's Jolly Roger." He held the drawing outwards and against the symbol on his kimono for Chopper to compare. He flicked the forehead of the sketched, sleeping Bellamy. "And he is _not_ a Heart pirate."

Chopper's face clouded. How could anyone tell?

Whereas Law would've left any other simpleton to crawl off and die, he knew there must be a cognitive misfire. He respected his fellow doctor, but was now worried about his capability to correctly diagnose any given case. But he'd only seen him help not harm.

He turned to a fresh page of the exercise book he'd been scrawling notes in and scribbled the Heart and Donquixote Jolly Rogers. He tapped his pencil on either picture. "The smile's not cancelled. One set of teeth, and see?," Law circled the points that surrounded his crew's design, "six of these." And an invisible spindle straight through Cora's nose.

"It's a virus?"

Law stared at the tanuki again at those words. Maybe the costume addled his perception.

"And on your hands?"

Pushing up the brim of Chopper's hat, Law cupped his palm to the his forehead. He knew from Bepo a fever could be sensed this way. Temperature, normal. Chopper didn't mind. Trust between practitioners and all.

"No." Law withdrew and touched the four edges of his tattoo instead. "Cardinal directions, like a compass, to keep me on the right path."

He tapped his pencil against the handles on the Heart's Jolly Roger he'd sketched. "And the helm to get me there." He hadn't thought how to incorporate a rudder into the general theme, although Cora was nothing but.

"Submarine's have a ship's wheel?"

"Yeah," Law smiled. "And so does our Jolly Roger."

Chopper guessed it didn't look too much like Doflamingo's, but it was difficult to tell. His sense of smell was superior to his sight. He asked for the book. Law passed it over and Chopper flattened it on the floor.

"Because you're a doctor…" Chopper sketched a few x's on a new page. Kisses? "I thought it was a virus. Your tattoo. An antidote maybe."

"I see." The Straw hats had their quirks. Chopper spent some time hatching pencil over paper. Law only had the one. Everything was in short supply in Wano unless you were one of the elite, so he browsed the scroll again, teasing meaning from the ornate calligraphy.

The quiet sweep of shading stopped and Chopper tugged Law's sleeve and pushed the book onto his lap. Two pictures.

"What do you see?"

Law gazed down then righted the book. Skull and crossbones and— "Petals?" He jabbed the paper.

"Cherry blossoms."

"Oh."

"How about the other one?" Chopper asked.

Law straightened the paper. Skull and crossbones and— "Poison?"

Chopper sank in on himself. "Yeah." Pulled his hat lower than it had been. Law eyed the X on both the hat and the paper. Their medical symbol. A crescent in some countries, an ancient sauwastika in others. A cross to crucify or cure.

"You knew?" The tanuki looked sadder than his blue nose so Law leant back some, stretched out a little, and invited him to come closer. He glommed in.

"Oof." Chopper burrowed against his belly and thigh, and Law's back pressed into the wall, but he made sure the other doctor was comfortable. Law rested an arm around his shoulders as Chopper took the pictures from him.

"My mentor told me this flag could fight every disease in existence. It was a symbol of hope." He indicated the Jolly Roger with the petals.

"A form of freedom?" Law asked. Most Jolly Rogers were, depending on which side you stood.

"And faith," Chopper agreed. He turned back a page and touched the Jolly Roger on the left that Law had drawn. "How about this one? Does it mean freedom?"

"Whose is it?" Law checked first. He wasn't convinced Chopper could differentiate and wondered if he had some type of visual agnosia.

"Doflamingo's."

Law blinked. Correct. "You saw Punk Hazard."

The kids. "Poison," Chopper answered his own question. He almost ripped the page out but calmed himself.

Chopper also felt Law tense behind him and then relax.

"And this one?" Law asked.

Chopper peered at the Heart's logo, then patted the smiley face on the kimono.

Law _tried_ to follow the path of freedom and faith, to discover its meaning. "Yup." He flipped the paper. "Same as this one." He highlighted Chopper's first design. He wriggled in his lap.

"That doesn't make me happy."

"I never expected it would."

A grin flashed across the face of man and boy like the light spotting through the torn frames of the door.

Law circled the more traditional skull and crossbones. "And this one?" A symbol any doctor should know.

Chopper wasn't good at hiding his feelings. Fur against any eye agitated the surface, so he blinked tightly as he rubbed the back of his foreleg across his face. "I killed my mentor, Dr. Hiriluk, with amiudake."

"The mushroom?"

Chopper took the book and set it on the tatami again. A hoof either side kept it in place.

"It looked delicious. Doctor Hiriluk's book of medicinal herbs had it marked with the symbol for freedom." Chopper's hoof pinned the poison warning. "For faith. A miracle cure."

Chopper snuffled and scrunched the paper and moved back to hide his face in the folds of the haori. Handkerchiefs were in short supply in Wano too. Shachi was good at laundry, though finding clean water was a task.

"I didn't know," Chopper said.

"Your mentor was a doctor?"

Law felt one of Chopper's antlers against the weave of his jacket as he moved his head, even encased in Kin'emon's magical hat.

"And he ate it?"

Chopper took some time to answer. Law watched the billowing of his coat as Chopper tried to disappear and not cry, the monograms patterning the sleeve quavering. Shinobu or Raizou should have taught him some ninjutsu to go along with all the gear.

Law knew he'd be in trouble if any of the Straw Hat crew came in. Protect first, ask later. He was the same with Bepo.

"Doctor was dying." The words were muffled. "I'd broken an antler, twisted my foot, was all cut up. It was hell to find the one amiudake. Drum was a winter island. I thought I could heal him." He didn't mention how he'd locked horns with a fully-grown buck, the sheer cliffs he'd descended and ascended.

Law patted the back of Chopper's head through the cloth. "It was snowing?"

"It never stopped."

Law had also thought the help he'd sourced on a day when the snow fell was valuable. He'd thought he could prolong a life. Save it. He'd been so relieved, had lowered his guard enough to let a marine—a Doflamingo spy—piggyback him. Law led him straight to Cora's death.

And Cora had said he wasn't dying, despite the bullet wounds, despite the beatings, despite Doflamingo. That he wouldn't die.

"Why didn't he teach you?" Law shook his head. Didn't get it. "Why didn't he teach you it was poisonous?"

Chopper wondered the same. Why had Hiriluk cooked and eaten a toxic mushroom? He took his own life. Ended his own life. Said Chopper was not at fault. But how could he _not_ be? The brief moment of faith gained was lost with the doctor's passing.

"I guess he figured I'd learn the truth soon enough."

Lost within an hour.

"Huh." Rough. Law's squeezed Chopper a bit tighter.

And if Law hadn't been sick? If the government hadn't persecuted them? If Cora _hadn't_ cared about him and had left him to work under Doflamingo's Jolly Roger?

"Poison," Law said, "got a way of corroding everything."

Chopper peeked from under the haori's softness at the medical scroll. Maybe Law would share what he'd learnt, or he could help him decipher it. They should ask Robin.

"Why the petals?"

"They'll melt any heart."

Law hadn't seen the snow fall like cherry blossoms as Chopper had when he departed Drum Island to find the cure for any and every disease.

"Is it enough?"

Chopper thought of Law dissecting the children at Punk Hazard and extracting the toxins and how it had scared him. Bepo had said they'd operated on Jinbe and Luffy without anaesthesia. The Polar Tang was a medical submarine; there should have been some at hand. Even unconscious, the bodies might have reacted to the cut of the knife.

How the change in pressure affected bodies and blood pressure he didn't know. But he tamped his anger. They'd survived. And Jinbe would fight beside them, and Luffy led them. A few sakura petals would have helped, but Law saved his captain and new crewmate without.

"With knowledge, they help." Cherry blossoms in winter softened the fall of snow.

**Author's Note:**

> This was an ask from [Lily_Amazon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_Amazon) on tumblr. The idea is two characters and a conversation topic. It's only meant to be a few 100 words, but this one decided it wanted to expand. Thanks, Lily, for the ask!
> 
> [RobotintheRoom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobotintheRoom), this is a gift for all of your wonderful support. We haven't chatted for a while, and I wanted to ask what character or kind of fic you might like. I know you like Law (and Chopper), so anyway, this is a thank you. Of course I'll remove the gift status if it makes you uncomfortable (just drop me an anon message on tumblr, or an email, or below).
> 
> Okay—this is set in Wano I guess before Chopper heads off to Udon with Big Mom and co, and before Law storms off after Shinobu's accusations. I know they're all in different towns and parts of Wano, so you'll just have to imagine that they're in the same area for a short period of time.
> 
> Anyway, hope you like it. All kudos and comments and other feedback are treasured. Let me know what you thought 😊  
> Thank you for reading ♥
> 
> * * *
> 
> my [tumblr](https://chromatic-lamina.tumblr.com/)  
> my [twitter](https://twitter.com/ChromaticLamina)


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